Nigel Stevenson, 35, previously of Willunga Street, Portland, pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court to 15 charges involving thefts, burglary and theft of alcohol from shops between 2007 and a couple of months ago.

Stevenson was jailed for 10 months and has already served 134 days in custody.

On release from prison he will be extradited to Queensland where he owes 18 months' imprisonment on parole after previously being jailed there on burglary and theft charges.

Magistrate Cynthia Toose said Stevenson’s raging alcohol and drug issues drove his offending and only a significant jail term was appropriate.

She said he had hit soft targets like schools, a medical practice, his aunt's home and a private home, which were proven to have long-term negative impacts on residents.

Time was also included in his sentence as the magistrate re-sentenced Stevenson for breaching a community corrections order.

Stevenson has 30 pages of prior convictions and Ms Toose said she understood that he had become institutionalised and was now probably more comfortable in prison than the community.

She said the significant jail term would allow Stevenson to think about his life.

"Change has to come from you," she said.

The charges involved Stevenson breaking into his aunt's Portland home and another home in Carlton which netted perfume and computers valued at $2900.

He also broke into two Portland schools, setting off alarms and took computers and medication Ritalin.

Each time police crime scene officers found forensic evidence linking Stevenson to the offences.

He also used a tomahawk to break into a medical centre and twice stole Jack Daniel's red label whiskey from shops, once when he was even told to put the bottles back by a staff member using the store’s public address system.